Nearly one-fourth of the country’s people think the government should keep necessary allocation in the upcoming national budget for FY2024-25 to ensure decent jobs becausemore than10 million youths are currently not in employment or are still students, according to a survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) recently.
They also suggested that policymakers should create a connectionbetween quality education and employment to ensure better jobs for potential candidates.
The observationswere disclosed in the results of the online and social survey published by CPD on Sunday, which highlights 14 priority areas including decent employment, education, social protection, inclusive society, etc.
The survey stated that at least 21.57 per cent of people said they want decent employment while 17.51 per cent of people gave importance to educationand stressed establishing the link between quality education and employment.
Debapriya Bhattacharya,a distinguished fellow of CPD and the convener of Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh,unveiled the survey report at a CPD-organised pre-budget discussion, titled “New Government, National Budget and Citizens’ Aspirations,”in Dhaka.
CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun made the welcome remarks while Debapriya presented the keynote. Some 65 partner organisations collaborated with CPD in various capacitiesin preparing this document.
The survey was prepared under CPD’s ongoing programme, titled “Towards People-centric Public Finance Management in Bangladesh”, in collaboration with Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladeshand with support from the European Union.
It showed that 64 per cent of people had no expectations from the government regarding the upcoming FY25 budget, while 36 per cent had some expectations.
Debapriya said, “Our fiscal space is likely to be limited. Private investment including FDI may follow a cautious approach, new tax breaks may be limited and higher tax rates may be imposed selectively.
“Besides, contractionary monetary policy to contain credit growth to the private sector may be followed by upward pressure on interest rates.”
He said, “The government will need to be cautious to avoid any policy spillover and protect the interest of the disadvantaged communities and smaller businesses while making macroeconomic adjustments, maintain zero tolerance against corruption and illicit financial outflow.”
Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education and core group member of Citizen's Platform for SDGs, said, “CPD has represented the common people perfectly. Some issues need special consideration like education, health, and nutrition.
“According to a recent World Bank report, Bangladesh is in the red zone of malnutrition — the main cause of which is lead poisoning.”
Also, there is no way but to increase the allocation in the education sector, she added.
Another CPD Distinguished Fellow, Mustafizur Rahman highlighted the need for higher allotment in the social safety net programme. “When you give rationsto a worker, his performance improves. Similarly, giving midday meals to children will increase their capacity. Allocation should be increased in these cases.”
“Education should be given the highest importance. Some 8 per cent allocation has been demanded for these sectors. However, politicians have to think about which sector will get a reduced amount. If taxpayers do not ensure the proper use of their money, it will be the common people’sloss,” he added.
Former planning ministerMA Mannan said, “We need to review the budget, as well as optimise the bureaucracy.”
MP AK Azad, a member of the Library Committee of the parliament, said, “There are serious issues in our health sector. We need morebudget allocation for this sector. However, we cannot even utilise what we have right now. There are machines in our hospitals but no one to operate them.”
According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey2022 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, there are about 31.6 million young people aged 15-24 in the country where 40 per cent or 13 million of them are uneducated and unemployed because they do not have the required skill as per market demand.
“We have to change our curriculum in line with the market demand. These 13 million young people need hands-on training for their skill development. We have to think about it and do what needs to be done,” Azadsaid.
CPD’sFY25 budget recommendations from the perspective of disadvantaged citizens include increased budget allocation for education (3 per cent of GDP), health (2 per cent of GDP) and social protection programmes (3 per cent of GDP).
Former environment and forest minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said, “There are issues that should have more focus on, such as capital flight, good governance in the banking sector, foreign exchange rate, and interest rate.”
CPD also recommended budget allocations for the enactment and implementation of the proposed Integrated Education Act and establishing a separate Teacher Recruitment Commission.
Besides, it recommended giving income tax relief to low and fixed-income people, prioritising domestic resource mobilisation, ensuring disaggregated budget reporting under the Public Money and Budget Management Act 2009, ensuring regular monthly meetings of parliamentary standing committees, etc.
